Ryan's Class Play - "Where are my animal friends?"

Last month Ryan's class did this play in groups of 5-6 kids each. Each group did the same play (it's one of the activities in their reading book).

I didn't find out about this play until 3 days before it then found out a day later that he needed a 'costume'. This was the best I could come up with... I was able to find a hat and make felt ears to fabric glue on, with a felt eye mask, striped felt tail, black sweat pants, gray shirt & gray gloves with felt claws!

This is one of Ryan's BEST friends! He met her in kindergarten and has been pretty smitten with her since. He was so excited when she got transfered to his class again this year!

Sadly the gloves made it very hard to turn the pages of the book. All the kids knew their lines, but to keep them busy and not focusing on parents watching them they let the kids read from the book. I didn't know they would use the books or I would have cut out the fingertips....

It included a raccoon, goose, hummingbird, bear and squirrel. Ryan chose the raccoon part for his group which was the main part of this little play. For anyone who knows Ryan you understand what a big deal this is. He's not a big fan of being the center of attention, but he's just so comfortable around this group of kids that he had a blast with it! He did an amazing job! I'm one proud Momma of my little raccoon!! :) Love him!!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

We celebrated Dylan's birthday a couple days early. He picked a birthday lunch of steak and root beer. :)

We started his party off with making pet rocks. The kids actually really enjoyed this far more than I had expected and I wish now that I had put more effort in collecting supplies..... oh well! :P

We had a great turn out of 14 friends even though invites didn't make it out until a week before.
I was able to rent a conference room at the library to avoid possible cold weather at the original location. I'm so grad I did because it worked out amazingly well for the set up on the whole party!

The gentleman who came to speak with the kids was AMAZING!! He brought so many rocks, minerals and fossils to share with the kids including a Mammoth Humerus!
The kids all had a great time getting to explore through all the great treasures!   

After teaching about each of the items he brought they got to do experiments with different types of minerals and rocks! He was so great at explaining everything to them.

As we were finishing up the party Dylan got to open his gifts. I was amazed how well each one of his friends knew him. His gifts were all so HIM! Crystal growing kit, rock digging, gold panning, lego's and books(plus more I can't think of at the moment)!
I was so glad all the friends were able to make it! Dylan was so excited to see each and everyone of them!

It was overall an amazing party! I think I may have one-up'd the entomology party from 2 years ago and I'm hopping I'm not setting an overly high standard for future parties! ;)
So hard to believe my baby is 9!! The time has gone by far too fast!!

The hard conversations....

Right this second my boys are 4, 6, and 8 years old. (Dylan turns 9 tomorrow)

I've always held my boys to very high standards. I've had high expectations. I'm a firm believer in punishment if those (achievable) expectations are not met. The #1 thing I drill into them is respect. Respect of everything! People, property, animals, nature etc...

Tonight when the feelings of others were brought to my attention I had to sit my kids down and explain those feelings. "wild", "bratty ass kids" who are "destructive". No I did not use this wording to them, this is just the way I was informed.

The just of it was that they behaved badly and wouldn't be invited back to someones house whom they love very much and love going to see, but I'll admit they have acted overly excited while there, loud, even messed up some carpet(which I'll be honest resulted in going to the bathroom for a spanking right away) and broke a couch(??) that was wasn't informed of until tonight. I'm not going to make excuses for them though because I've told them every time we are there to not act that way and they only seem to do it there. They didn't listen and had to learn a couple of very hard life lesson at a very young age.

Either way though they are being punished accordingly and are all very sorry and hurt at how their behavior has made others feel about them. Hopefully they learn something from it - before anymore relationships get ruined. Their actions set a huge impression and the words of others after bad actions hurt....

Tears are healing though.

I have to admit this is more my fault than theirs. When we first started going there they would play with a football (inside) and get overly excited with one of the people who lived there. I would tell them to calm down but then I would be told "it's okay, they are just playing" so I felt like I was wrong for trying to stop them. They would ask for candy, I said no but it would be given to them anyways so I stopped saying no. These first few visits set a standard for us and I've had a hard time knowing exactly how far to go on disciplining them while there or weather or not to say no when food/candy is offered to them. I'm their mother though and should have expected and required my children to behave the same way there I do everywhere else. I shouldn't have ever allowed this unacceptable standard to be set. They learned they could push me further there without getting in much trouble and that's not a good thing to allow. So in this way I failed them. We've all learned a very valuable but hurtful lesson we are not soon going to forget.

I don't like having conversations like this with my kids. I hope I never have to again....

Aydan & Mommy 'date' night!

Tuesday evening I got the chance to have time with just Aydan. We had snow in the forecast and Aydan was super excited all day! He kept looking out the window just waiting until it finally started snowing mid morning. The flakes were HUGE and I was just sure they would stick, so when Aydan asked to go out to play in it I asked him to wait. Big mistake. Within just a couple hours it stopped and nothing had stuck!! He was soooooooooo disappointed. I felt horrible for making him miss it...

He sat like this for around an hour singing to himself about wanting to play in the snow. He finally got too hot and removed his snow gear.

Luckily around 6:30 we got another chance! I think I had him dressed and outside in record time because I was so worried we would miss it again! He had a BLAST! There was nothing sticking again but he had fun catching the snow. The flakes were super big again and he kept telling me the sky was throwing snowballs at him. :)

Once he was done playing in the snow we ordered a 'date' night pizza. (Had a living room picnic of course!) Cheese w/ triple black olives! Luckily Aydan and I share this love! He enjoyed his with yogurt! Afterwards we had hot chocolate, marshmallow bits and candy canes!

Spending time with him was wonderful and I wish I had special time with him more often! It's so hard to believe that in just a few months he'll be starting school! The time has flown by far too fast!

Geology "Rocks"! :)

It's that time of year again! Time to start planning birthday parties for my two oldest!

Dylan's birthday is first - at the beginning of March. This year he has chosen a geology theme. Dylan has always been a very inquisitive kid who soaks up knowledge everywhere he goes and in everything he does.  He still has high aspirations of being an Astronaut, Entomologist and has now added Geologist to that list.

So I've planned an awesome party! The kids favors will include everything needed for their own rockhounding adventure!

• Goggles
• Loupe
• Field Journal 
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Bag of starter rocks w/ starter rock guide
• Rock collecting bag
• Jr. Geologist name badge w/ lanyard
• Rock candy sucker (seriously how can I not add this in??) 

All in a handy carrying bag!

Trying to find someone to speak about geology at the party, but do you know how hard this is?!?! 

Still trying to figure out what party treats to make also. 

I have about a month to start planning Ryan's party. His parties are so much harder to plan though because he is so gosh darn indecisive!! So far he's said he wants a geology party, a ninjago, pirates and space.

2013 - here we go!

Well, 2013 has started off reasonably well. Busy, but that's to be expected in this house! :)

Dylan & Ryan are doing good in school and Cub Scouts. They are getting ready for Pine Wood Derby at the beginning of Feb. Dylan's grades are exceptional and Ryan's are coming WAY up from where he started at the first of the year. Ryan started off struggling and having a bit of trouble with his confidence but I think he has finally found his groove!!


Dylan is prepping for his second acting audition. This time with Town & Gown - a local theater. The play is called "The Broken Statue". A historical play surrounding the Marland Mansion in Ponca City, Ok. His chances of getting into this one are actually fairly slim unless there are very few boys who audition due to him being 2-6 years younger than the ages they are looking for. I think if he can go in and show them what he's got he'll make it though!
We are also in the process of planning his 9th birthday party. He's chosen to have a geology party and learn everything he can about rocks and their formations. I must say planning science related parties is so much more difficult than pizza and bounce houses... It's sure to be a great party though!



Ryan doesn't have too many interests these days other than video gaming which I'm mean and limit. He's getting ready to start a reading tutoring program at OSU that hopefully will boost his reading confidence. He's also interested in karate so we may look into that for an active outlet!

Right now he absolutely loves ANYTHING active! Skating, biking, scooter riding, rocks, dirt, bugs, building forts/huts, outdoor scavenger hunting, etc. These things can & will keep him busy for hours on end!

As you can see in the pic he loves finding treasure. This "ancient pipe" was one he found today while we were in the field next to our house rock hunting


Aydan has a recently found love of all things Thomas (the train). For Christmas he got a train table and quite a few trains to go with it. He now has Thomas jammies that he lives in, Thomas bedding, Thomas movies and a Thomas condutor hat that he loves wearing and sleeping with. His favorite train right now is Hiro.

He's been working hard on writing his letters so hopefully will be fully writing by the time he starts pre-k in Aug. He's super excited about school, but me not so much. It's hard to believe my baby is old enough for school....

He's growing too fast! A few nights ago this kid ate 4 slices of pizza in one sitting and was still asking for more(I cut him off at that because I was afraid he would explode)...


Plans are also in the works for a 2 room addition to be built onto the back of our house so the g-ma's can move in. I've never liked nursing homes and have always said I would be the one to care for them once they could no longer care for themselves. Well, that time is very near... More on this in the coming weeks!

Finished the play...forgot to post

 Well, Dylan finished up the play of Galileo in November. I forgot to post about it though with life just being so busy. He did AMAZING!!! I got to watch the play every night except 1/2 of one night. He has already started talking about wanting to do another play in the future. :)

As you can see by this ticket our seats were in row G, sadly once we got inside we realized there was no row G and had to be randomly seated elsewhere. This made things a bit stressful since we had pre-reserved our spot.

On the last night of the play I got a chance to get Dylan's picture with the other 2 main cast members. Bennett (aka Galileo) and James (aka the grown up version of Andrea Sarti). :)
Do you see how much James and Dylan favor?!?! Sorta freaky! They even walk the same!

This was a curtain call practice on the last night of rehearsal. This is the whole stage cast. Dylan was the youngest of 3 kids and the others were all OSU students I think.

He very much misses the interaction with the cast. He had gotten to know most of them pretty well and was very sad once the play was over. We may check in to more acting options this summer.